


Five Explosions.

by Pennyplainknits



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-19
Updated: 2010-06-19
Packaged: 2017-10-18 03:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/184383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pennyplainknits/pseuds/Pennyplainknits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec Hardision makes things go boom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Explosions.

**Author's Note:**

> For [](http://morethanateam.livejournal.com/profile)[**morethanateam**](http://morethanateam.livejournal.com/) who requested something Hardison-centric, possibly involving Parker’s plant. I hope you like it! Beta by queenklu

  
**One: Do not cover**

Alec bit the tip of his tongue between his teeth as he stretched up to reach the can of spaghetti-O's from the cupboard about the sink.

"Alec!" Nana called. Her voice was hoarse with cold. "What are you doing?"

"Nothin' Nana," Alec answered. "Just getting a soda." The can of orange soda stood at the side of the sink, so he wasn't really lying. He got down from the chair and opened the microwave.

Nana was sick, with a snuffly nose and a sore throat. Alec knew that spaghetti-Os were the best thing when you were sick. The can had a ring pull, so it was easy to open. He poured the sauce and hoops into a tupperware and put the lid on tight, so it wouldn't spill. Then he put it into the microwave and turned the dial.

Seconds later there was a loud BANG! and Kellie came running from her room.

"What did you do?" she asked as Alec looked at the red sauce and pasta hoops coating the inside of the microwave.

"I was making Nana spaghetti-os!" Alec said, looking up at her, "to make her feel better!"

"You're not supposed to put the lid on the bowl," she said, as though it was obvious. Maybe, Alec thought, that was the kind of thing they taught you in Junior High. "Also, you made a mess. Pops is going to be mad when he sees it."

"Help me clean it up?" Alec pleaded. Pops might be mad, but Nana would be worse.

Kellie chewed the end of her braid, considering.

"Only if you help me with Day of the Tentacle," she said eventually.

"Deal," Alec said, licking a drop of tomato sauce off the end of his thumb.

 **Two: Overclock with care**

Alec's Blood Elf was halfway throught a quest when there was a loud POP! followed by a blank monitor, and the smell of burning.

"Oh hell no," Alec said, with a sinking feeling.

Thirty minutes and several deep scratches from the RAM and motherboard later, and he was looking at the burnt out interior of his favourite gaming rig. The smell of burning was stong, and there were still faint whisps of smoke floating in the air.

"Well, damn," he said to himself. "Guess I did need more cooling for the overclock."

He consigned Almeria to the scrap pile in the corner of the media room and hooked her hard drive (still, mercifully, undamaged) up to Beatrice. She needed a better sound card, but she'd do as a backup gaming system until he could build a new one.

He looked at the clock. 7pm. He was bored. Had been since the last job. Warcraft had been a welcome distraction, and now he didn't even have that.

He fired up Greta the work computer and ordered a new sound card. And a new monitor. And some speakers. He paid extra for next day delivery. He looked at the clock. 7:30. Still bored. He wandered around the apartment aimlessly and debated trying to play pool against himself. He ate a cup noodle staring out of the window, wracking his brains for something to do. He clicked around a bit and hacked the BBC intranet more for practice than anything else. He spent thirty minutes reading the new Doctor Who scripts to growing dismay. Russell T Davis was asking for more porn magazines. Straight ones this time.

He was just trolling the scifi blogs with fake Marvel casting rumours (his favourite was Chad Micheal Murray as Hank Pym) when his work cellphone rang.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Mr Alec Hardison?" a guy asked. He sounded stressed out, slightly desperate. "My name's Victor du Bennich. I have a proposition for you."

 **Three: Sterling is bad for buildings**

Back when they were setting up the offices, Nate had drawn him to one side and asked him, quietly, to add in some extra security.

"Some, _last resort_ security, underdstand, Hardison?"

Alec had been a little creeped out, and a little impressed--Nate was more like them than he pretended to be. He'd considered and discarded complex laser and heat detection systems in favour of good old-fashioned C4. You knew where you stood with explosions.

He'd just never expected to have to use them because of one of their own.

"The offices? You just…blew them up?" Sophie asked, eyes wide and concerend. Alec didn't know if she was faking or not, and that concerned him.

"What," Nate snapped, "You wanted us to leave all that evidence for Sterling to find?" Nate was as angry as Alec had ever seen him, and he showed it with clipped words and tight lips. "And before you say anything else, Sophie, remember why Sterling was there in the first place. This is _your_ fault."

"Did you at least get Sterling?" Eliot asked. He had a split lip, a bruise on his cheekbone, and he'd squeezed into the booth at the diner holding his broken ribs. Guy could still throw a punch though.

"Don't think so," Alec shook his head.

"Pity," Eliot growled.

"It's all gone?" Parker said. "But, I bought a plant! My plant's gone?"

Alec gave her a half-hug, and to his great surprise, she let him.

"We'll get you another one," he said.

 **Four: Bye Bye Baby.**

Lucille.

 _Lucille._

Next time someone else can blow up their own damn van.

 **Five: The Rocket's Red Glare**

The steaks hissed and sizzled as Eliot turned them over on the grill. The warm night air was heavy with the scent of herbs, garlic and cooking meat. Sophie and Nate were unpacking the rest of the cooler and setting up a table and chairs (Sophie had refused point blank to sit on sand,) the bickering now so familar that Alec could tune it out.

"Want me to help?" he asked Eliot. He reached out for the brush in the little pot of marinade, only to have Eliot jerk it out from under his hand.

"Do I look like I need help? Go help Parker."

She was down the beach a way, unpacking firework after firework out of a metal trunk and wearing a loop of det cord round her neck like a very dangerous necklace.

"Great," she said, looking up. "You can help me get these laid out."

He studied the labels as he unpacked them. "Skyrockets," he read, "Silver fountain. Coloured serpents. Super 12 Shot. Hey, what's this one?" He held out a firework with no label. It was a collection of tubes of different lengths, with multiple fuses.

"The Parker Spectacular," Parker grinned. "What, you think I'm just going to let off _store bought_ fireworks?"

"Beautiful," Alec said. Still, he left the unlabled ones for Parker to unpack. It was _Parker_ , after all.

Once the box was empty they laid them out on the sand according to Parker's careful calculations.

"This is gonna be one hell of a display," he said, standing back to adire the result and dusting the dry sand off his hands.

"Oh yeah," Parker said, and knocked her shoulder against his.

They ate steak and grilled chilli corn and potato salad, homemade cherry pie, and washed it down with cold beer. Sophie lay back in her folding lounge chair and sighed happily.

"That was delicious," she said.

"Uh huh," Alec agreed. He streched out on the blanket spread on the sand, and Nate handed him down another beer. He raised it up to Eliot "Seriously man, that was amazing."

Eliot clinked the bottle against his. "'s what I do."

"Can we have the fireworks now?" Parker asked, and got to her feet.

"Uh, Parker...." Nate said, slowly "Fireworks are illegal in this state."

"And?" Parker said, giving a little headshake that said, clearly, that she didn't see the problem.

"And if we set them off the cops'll come running," Nate said, "which is something I'd like to avoid."

"You know," Alec said, getting an idea "We _could_ set them all off at once, and be gone by the time the cops arrive."

"No." Nate said. "That's a terrible idea."

"It could work," Eliot said, with a gleam in his eye.

"I'm in," Parker said, smiling.

"Oh, come on Nate," Sophie said, pleadingly. "Parker did all that work, and I always miss Guy Fawkes Night."

"I'll go lay the fuses," Parker said without waiting for a reply, and she ran across the sand with her hair flying out behind her.

Nate just shook his head, "Oh yeah, this is going to end badly." but he gave Sophie a hand up out of the chair.

By the time they got to the fireworks Parker was cutting and laying the det cord to link the fireworks together. They all stood at a respectful distance, just in case.

"Ok," Parker explained when she had finished.She handed then each a length of cord "These are your fuses. On three, ok? One! Two! Three!"

Alec touched his lighter to the fuse, and they all watched as the fireworks turned the night sky as bright as day.

End


End file.
